[OSM-talk] Most complete cities and administrative divisions database

[M∡rtin Koppenhoefer]

2011/1/26 Sami Dalouche <skoobi at free.fr>:
>> are you asking about the city or about it's administrative boundary?
>> http://taginfo.openstreetmap.de/keys/boundary#values
>
> I was asking about its administrative boundary. So, after reading
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:place, what I understand is that :
> - Cities are marked as nodes


well, they can also be marked as polygons (delimiting the actual
built-up area, place-tag), but as our major renderer mapnik doesn't
support this, there is very few places mapped like this (it would make
them disappear from the rendering).


> - Sometimes, there are additional ways (boundary=administrative) to delimit
> the administrative boundary


yes, usually this would be relations, because they allow to use the
ways several times (for the areas each side of the way)


> - As a bonus, there can be relations that link the city node to its
> boundary.


yes, might be, there should / could also be hierarchical structure /
nested relations, etc.


> So now, let's go with other administrative divisions :
> Now, let's say I want to add an entry for Orange County. How should I do it
> ? Should it just appear as a boundary=administrative,


yes, this should go into an administrative relation and get its
admin_level for county ( 6 )
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Admin_level


cheers,
Martin